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Christmas trip

2025-02-15 16:12:00, Blog Artan Rama

Christmas trip

When the car arrived at the border, it was not yet dawn outside. A sleepy head moved from inside the counter, and the uniformed officer greeted them without a word. The documents were in a light-colored bag that the man handed to him without leaving the cabin. There were three of them and they waited in silence. In the dim light from the checkpoint, in the back seat, the soft face of a sleeping child could be seen.

The decision to leave had been quick, and the woman had sought to avoid Rinas. “Maybe it’s better to leave by land,” she had said. “That way they can’t find us.” He understood from her tone, not from her words, that there was no room for discussion. She immediately began packing. By evening, everything was ready.

Christmas trip

When they left, the city had fallen asleep. The boy sat in the back and she covered him with a jacket. The journey passed in silence and the road to the border was almost empty.

And now they were at the customs checkpoint, on the northern border of the country. The Christmas decorations placed above the counter at the checkpoint seemed to further emphasize the distance and the unknown towards which they were heading. The control procedures did not last more than ten minutes. The counter closed and the car moved forward. Without even passing five hundred meters, they turned right and headed towards Skopje. She tried to orient herself and looked outside. She rested her forehead on the cold glass and her thoughts seemed to refresh themselves…

Seventeen years ago, when she was a young reporter, she had welcomed the war refugees to this place. It had been dark then, just like now. Thousands had landed on the field. Coming from war, alongside the loot on their carts, they carried the drama of an ethnic conflict. Their eyes showed humility and fear. Hundreds of tents were erected within hours. The camp was overrun with women and the cries of children. Seventeen years had passed and many things had been forgotten.

The car was approaching Skopje, while the nightgown was rapidly unraveling. In the seat, the little one stretched out and then turned slightly. She spoke to him softly and in a thin voice, but he did not wake up. If he opened his eyes to look just for a moment, he would stare at the white face of a woman with large black eyes in front of him. She covered him from behind, then turned her gaze to her husband, at the wheel, but it was he who spoke first. “We’re arriving,” she said, without taking her eyes off the road. She took a deep breath and leaned back in the seat. It was a wordless journey, or an escape that was taking with it something deeper, more painful, albeit in silence.

When they arrived, the airport was wet from the rain. They left the car at the entrance, near a hotel, where someone would return it by evening, as ordered.

Carrying only two suitcases, they passed through security and headed down a narrow, low-ceilinged corridor. The stewardess was waiting for them with a slight smile that grew wider and wider, or perhaps it seemed to her because they were the ones approaching her. She took their red-glazed tickets and then patted the boy on the head. She glanced at the woman and invited them inside. They passed through the entrance and, after describing the frozen body of the plane, slowly settled in. After twenty minutes, the plane took off. A short noise echoed across the runway and immediately the plane was lost in the air. For a moment, only a black dot was visible, which then dissolved into clouds. The sound of the engines put him to sleep.

Christmas trip

When he woke up, he looked out the window and tried to make out the horizon. Beyond the clouds lay a faint red line. He took a breath and touched the boy. There was still a long way to go, but they had already gone far. His mind went back to the people who had fled. They had all arrived within a night or two! The villagers had helped them as best they could. He was trying to refresh his memory by keeping his eyes open and still. The past was moving slowly and with difficulty...

After a while she tasted a regret. She shook her hand and chewed. No one was expecting her! Maybe no one would report her. This was a secret escape, in silence, in the dark. In recent days, anxiety had paralyzed her whole being. So the day before, when a threatening message arrived on her cell phone, the fear she was living with turned into panic. The decision was immediate. She called her husband and said: – “Take your son to school! Go now!” And he did not hesitate.

In the evening, when everything was ready, she leaned back on the sofa and waited for midnight. Along with the house, she was leaving behind a twenty-year career. She was leaving behind her mother, her sister, and her relatives. Everything!

Published on 25.07.2017